Zaruk
music from another world
“Azquinezer and Seiferth share out the melodies, embroidering them, glossing them, reinventing them, playing or weeping with them, praising the world”
ZARUK is the meeting of Iris Azquinezer’s cello and Rainer Seiferth’s guitar, two artists with a solid classical training who move naturally between the classical, the modern and the popular. Musical omnivores and tireless enthusiasts, together they have created a language of their own in which composition and improvisation, rigour and freedom go hand in hand.
Their programmes range across original compositions inspired by the Sephardic tradition and that of the Iberian Peninsula, the dances of the Balkans, the Romanticism of Franz Schubert, the Nordic landscapes of Jean Sibelius and the Brazilian music of Jobim. Zaruk often expand their line-up to include distinguished guests such as María Berasarte (vocals), Andreas Prittwitz (saxophone, clarinet, flute) and David Mayoral (percussion) and, more recently, the flamenco trumpet of Enriquito. This flexibility allows them to feel equally at home on an intimate stage and in a large theatre.
Countless venues and concert series have welcomed Zaruk since the duo was founded in 2016. With their most recent release, Agua, they gave more than 80 concerts in Spain and Germany: the Noches del Alcázar in Seville, the Festival Internacional de Música Sefardí in Córdoba, FIAS in Madrid and the Tafelhalle in Nuremberg are just a few of them. The press has repeatedly praised the originality of their lyricism (ABC Cultural, Scherzo…). Iris Azquinezer, who graduated with honours in Detmold and studied with Anner Bylsma and András Schiff, is a soloist specialising in Bach; Rainer Seiferth, who trained in Heidelberg-Mannheim and has lived in Spain since 2005, is also co-founder and musical director of Taracea.
Through their playfulness and rapport, Zaruk show that chamber music can be as rigorous as it is free.